Sisters Camille and Jennifer Norton talk to Santa Dallas Nessen at the Salt Lake City Police Department’s annual holiday Police Pay-it-Forward event at Walmart in Salt Lake City on Saturday. Fifty-five children completed a holiday wish list and sent it to the Salt Lake City Police Department and the community outreach team shopped for each of the children and wrapped the gifts. (Laura Seitz, Deseret News)
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SALT LAKE CITY — The atmosphere outside a Salt Lake City Walmart was filled with the Christmas Spirit Saturday morning as police officers, Santa, and Walmart employees gave bags of gifts to children.
The Salt Lake City Police Department helped fill wish lists for 55 children from three local elementary schools as part of its Pay-it-Forward event. The children are picked by the school districts and the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, which consider which children have the most need and which would benefit from a positive interaction with law enforcement, Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown said.
He said each child is given a $200 budget and is able to shop for whatever they want. Frequently they shop for gifts for others in their family. In previous years, officers have each taken a child through the store to help them pick out gifts and have sometimes prodded the children to try to get them to pick out something for themselves.
This year, the police department has been shopping all week to pull together the gifts the children ordered, which were wrapped and ready for the kids. He said they adapted because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that the officers hope to do the event in person again next year.
Brown said seeing the smiles of the kids at this event is one of the highlights of the year for the police department. They also hold a back-to-school version of the Pay-it-Forward program and help children get supplies for school.
In addition to being a great experience for the children and their parents, the event also benefits the department, Brown said, because they have an opportunity to build relationships and trust with individuals in the community.
“When you start with the youth, those relationships resonate for decades into the communities that we serve,” Brown said. “Cops, kids, and Christmas — it doesn’t really get better than that.”
He said there was one girl who came Saturday morning who was very excited to see Santa, he said he didn’t think the girl could stop dancing and was excited to show Santa her “dancing boots.”
“It was just heartwarming to see how excited these kids are,” Brown said.
Dallas “Santa” Nessen said when they ask the kids what they want for Christmas, they get touching answers from children who ask for a coat for their sister or for their family to be together. He enjoys interacting with the children and seeing their excited facial expressions.
“There’s nothing like the light and joy of a child, and they just light up,” Nessen said.
Parents said their children have been very excited for the gifts and to come and meet Santa.
Tiesha Norton’s said her children, Jennifer and Camille, were “super excited” to come today. One of her daughters was happy to report after talking to Santa that she was on the nice list. Both of them said their favorite thing about Christmas is the presents. Norton said that she didn’t like Christmas, but now with her children, she loves the holiday.
Teresa Gutierrez, a civilian who works with the police department, has been helping with the event for 23 years. She said it’s something she doesn’t want to miss. She likes seeing the looks on the children’s faces when they get their presents and get to sit with Santa.
“It’s just all the excitement and the energy that you feel from everybody; everybody from Walmart workers to our officers,” Gutierrez said.
The program is run through donations from the Salt Lake City Police Foundation, Salt Lake City Police Department personnel, and various community organizations and businesses including Walmart Supercenter.
Multiple Walmart employees helped hand out bags and came outside to be part of the excitement of the morning.
“I think it’s a cool thing that the community can get together, the store and the officers and, you know, make this happen for the kids,” said Salina Perez, a Walmart employee.
Walmart employees provided bags of candy, helped set up the decorations around Santa and found the bags for the children when they came.
In addition to this event in Salt Lake City, other police departments participated in a similar program on Saturday where they helped children with Christmas shopping. Cedar City Police Department held its “Shop With a Cop” event and the Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office did as well.
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